This past weekend was a blur. Saturday was the booksigning at Little Rock, and you can see pictures from that on my blog: Pics from the booksigning

Sunday, however, was much more interesting. My daughter and I went to visit with Bill and Lisa. They look like an average couple even if Bill looks like a cross between a Viking warrior and Charlie Manson (maybe because of the maniacal twinkle in his eye). Lisa could be any woman you meet on the street. Nothing about them sets them off as anything out of the ordinary until you walk into the house and smell the incense burning from the altar in their living room.

Bill’s an ordained minister in the Asatru religion, which is based on Norse mythology. And Lisa is an eclectic witch.

The conversation flowed from Norse creation myth with Audumbla (am I spelling that right?) licking the ice to uncover the first man to the existence of fairies. And what exactly is an eclectic witch? All those questions were answered in a very long conversation, where I sat with my notebook on my knees and listened. They likely thought I was the quietest person on the planet for other than questions I inserted for clarification, I just let them talk.

But that’s how I work. I like listening to how people talk about their interests and pick up their terms, their slang. For instance, Bill and Lisa have little patience with Wiccans whom they refer to as “white-light-fuzzy-bunny-tree-huggers” only because they feel Wiccans have gone too “good” in order to court a more PC image. Interesting.

And I doubt this will be the last time I see them. You see, in the course of the sprawling conversation, they mentioned their involvment in ghosthunting. And since they are forming a new hunter group here, I mentioned they probably needed someone to write up their findings…

I like to keep an open mind when I venture into religion or the occult. I only truly believe what I see, feel, smell, or hear for myself. I believe in ghosts because of two things I experienced directly for myself. I believe in clairvoyance, because my daughter has the uncanny gift of knowing when someone is about to die or be injured. I believe in karma because I’ve seen how it works.

The rest I respectfully study and hope “encounters” will open up a new avenue of belief for me. I have an extensive personal library of religious and mythological books. While I read and make my little field trips to explore, I use what I learn to enrich the stories I write.